The Beginning at the End
by Milennial
Summary: When all things came to an end, one unexpected survivor was left behind, a lost soul amidst the remnants. No more. Death could not stop him, oblivion could not chain him. For he was Naruto and the end proved to be only the first step on his road. A response to a challenge by Sage of Fanfiction, more information inside.


**Greetings, fellow readers and writers, welcome to my story, a response to a challenge issued by Sage of Fanfiction (Naruto The One Who Shall Rule is the proper name of it I think) and also the first of what I hope to become a whole series. **

**If this strikes you as short, fear not, because this is only a prelude per say, the first step towards what will come. Everything will be explained in the notes after the actual chapter, so unless you decided to quit in the middle, it should contain info that might bring some sense to this.**

**Update: This was slightly redone in several details, the key points however remaining either similar or unchanged.**

**With that in mind, be my guest and read on…**

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Groaning in pain, a certain blonde haired youth opened his eyes, almost dreading what sight would await him. However, despite all his expectations, what he received was something even he could not begin to imagine in his most vivid dreams...or the worst nightmares. Given the sight around him, he was leaning towards the latter.

As far as he could see, there was almost nothing in sight but an endless blackness, an emptiness that seemed to comprise the whole world around him. There was no up or down, no sense of direction whatsoever, only an infinite darkness surrounding him from all sides and an incredible cold chill that seemed to permeate everything.

No, perhaps it was not cold, merely an absence of warmth, light and the other things he was used to.

Somehow he was surprised that he could see everything clearly, since there was no apparent source of light anywhere.

Strangely enough, there were other elements in this strange place other than the vast darkness, a myriad of things circling both around his person and in the distance: Pieces of earth, barely recognizable debris that long ago held some form and shape, everything floating in a chaotic mess, like scattered pieces of a once colossal body, now shattered seemingly beyond repair.

However, it was not completely desolate.

Some of the larger pieces were different than the others, holding some semblance on what they once were and even holding things he could recognize. A tree here, a few ruins over there, there was a small flicker of life and color in wherever he was, but they were far and between, like embers of a dying fire.

His body was resting upon one such fragment, like a remnant of something that has long since passed.

He tried to move, to look around more, but his body immediately flared in agony, still covered in wounds that would kill any other person. With a tired sigh, he gave up on trying and tried to get himself as comfortable as one in his position could.

Looking around, he saw more of the place that has now become his refuge, trying to make some sense of it.

In the distance of his floating piece of land, he could see several high rock that were jutting upwards, resembling black monoliths to their nameless dead. A bit closer to him his eyes barely made out something what once possibly was a great statue, its head with nine giant (albeit closed) eyes lying half buried in the ground.

Feeling a rush of memories flowing to his head, the gasped in recognition, remembering what happened prior to him losing consciousness:

The Elemental Nations were on the brink of war, tensions running all time high thanks to both the mutual animosity between the nations and the dreaded Akatsuki organization. Desperately trying to avert a war, the five major villages created a fragile alliance and Tsunade made an agreement (or so he assumed) with Kumo to keep him safe, since he was one of the two remaining Jinchuuriki in the world.

He got transported to a secret haven where he was supposed to learn how to better control the demon dwelling behind the seal that was forever carved to his very soul, a mission that made him secretly snort.

Despite all his accomplishments, everyone was still underestimating his power, a sentiment he had little need to correct. It worked to his advantage just fine so why bother?

What no one aside from him knew was that he had an agreement (perhaps even friendship) of sorts with the fox demon for a long time, one that lasted to this very day. Control? He had no need to chain his partner in crime and enforce what he needed like those before him, not when he could just ask.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the feared Nine Tails took a liking to him (besides their mutual hatred for those that wanted to kill them or impede their progress), because he actually bothered to converse with it on his leisure and did not chain it to the floor every time he needed something.

Of course, no longer having a physical body, it was not as if the Kyuubi was going anywhere even if he were to release it on his own. Still, it had won him the loyalty of a bijuu, not something just any human could boast.

It was a secret that only the two of them alone shared, since he wanted to have an edge in the case something went wrong, not to mention that the constant companionship of the fox kept him sane in his early years when no one else would stand by his side.

Still, both he and his tenant were curious about the training so he did not object to the notion, not that they had much choice in the matter. It was an order after all.

Aside from that, the secondary objective the allied nations probably wanted to accomplish by this was to conceal him from the Akatsuki. Not that he was told such a fact, but he figured it made sense that way.

However, time ran out and things turned out the exact opposite of what the five Kage wished for.

After a few days at the base, a mobile island of all things, the shit really hit the fan. The one person that killed Jiraya, the enigmatic Pain himself appeared, along with the rest of his allies, laying waste to the supposedly secret island. How they found out their location so quickly was anyone´s guess, but at the time there was no room for such thoughts.

Both he and the container of the Hachibi, a rather strange but nonetheless interesting man by the name of Killer Bee, along with all the Shinobi (both from Konoha and Kumo) that were with them fought the invaders, but the Akatsuki members were no pushovers and inevitably overwhelmed the opposition, capturing them both at once.

Of course, they fought and killed more than a few of them, with some improvised cooperation they even brought down the so called god, only to discover that he was merely a figurehead for the true mastermind, the Sharingan possessing Shinobi who called himself Tobi, a fact that the man did not forget to gloat about.

In the end, only the two of them were left alive, the rest slaughtered like sheep, despite their brave but pointless resistance.

Confident in his victory, Tobi and his few remaining subordinates proceeded to seal the eight tails into the Gedo statue, before bringing him forward as the last Jinchuuriki to be drained.

But even then things did not go the way he intended. During the time when he was being drained, some sort of bird (probably the one Itachi forced into his body during their last encounter) with a Sharingan eye emerged from his body and with a strange mind-affecting technique turned the Akatsuki against one another.

The sealing was interrupted and during the subsequent fight, the statue containing the eight tailed beasts (plus a part of his bijuu) suffered damage. The last thing he saw was a gigantic explosion annihilating everything in sight, even his person.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Naruto had to sigh in acceptance. They…no, he lost, and now all that remained was this.

And it was at that time that his demonic tenant made itself known, apparently being dangerously close to death as well, since a good deal of his energy and powers were drained during the sealing. He confirmed what the blonde dreaded most, a truth so absurd that it could not be true…..but it was. However, there was something the fox gained during their connection with the statue.

In a moment of clarity, the Kyuubi somehow managed to end up with the memories and thoughts of its eight siblings, sadly without their power that usually came with it. Even that however offered no escape from their confinement.

They were alone, the last of their kind with a body that would inevitably succumb to the combination of time and the cold around them, no matter how long it was going to take.

His body was one big gallery of wounds, but he could not feel any of them, focused only on the thought that in such a short time, he had lost everything and everyone that mattered to him. It was maddening! Unacceptable!

He was alive, even if barely, but that was a small consolation. Why did this have to happen? Was this how it would all end, being forgotten by all and accomplishing nothing? No, that was unbearable, he just could not resign to it, there was no way that Uzumaki Naruto would just accept defeat so easily!

Both he and the Nine Tails had nothing left but each other, but neither was satisfied with it, not in the slightest. But what could they do but wait there while his body slowly healed?

As time passed and they had time to observe how things around went, he saw some of the things around disappear while others appeared from somewhere, although from where he could only speculate.

The more his body became healthy again, the more he began to see a pattern in what was happening in the strange plane. By reasoning he slowly came to a conclusion that would open his eyes about his existence and about universe itself.

_Everything a part of something. There was not just a single world as they knew it, but a vast multiverse teeming with life. And throughout the most subtle of ways, every realm connected with each other, the void where he resided being one such way. _

_There was no end or beginning, just the continuous eternal existence that everyone was connected to, the two of them included. And while life would end in darkness, surely another would take its place, rising from the same place where the previous one perished._

_All begin in darkness and all so ends. The beginning and the end, one cannot exist without the other, yet both of the two were nothing but milestone on the path that is existence. But if that was true, why couldn´t the two of them continue forward?_

To put it plainly, they were stuck, having no way to go forward or backward, a fact that did not sit well with the two of them. Regardless if such a universal truth was false or not, it was obvious that waiting around would bring nothing but despair.

As time seemed to have no meaning in the place they were, the unlikely duo plotted undisturbed, until they finally came with the solution, an idea that transcended everything they both knew. It would be difficult, insanely so, but considering their situation, neither Naruto nor Kyuubi ever thought of looking back. It was that or be imprisoned in the void forever.

The preparations took what felt like an eternity, and in a way, perhaps it did, but at last, they were ready, the fox gathering what it could from the accumulated memories while Naruto focused on absorbing the energies of their prison, not unlike how he would gather natural energy when he was training as a sage which was a task in itself, since they were never intended to be wielded by anyone, much less a mortal like himself.

It hurt, more than anything he had ever known, but they pressed on regardless, accepting the darkness that threatened to fill him to the brink yet retaining his own soul, ferociously defending it against the hungering onslaught of the void.

Slowly building the energy for such a deed, the blonde reached out, going more by intuition than anything else. This was not something a human would normally be ever able to do, but he hoped that the gamble would pay off.

What exactly he was reaching for, he did not know, but anything would do, hopefully it would help him escape this eternal imprisonment. No matter what happened, anything was better than rotting away in darkness.

And so they did what they intended, pulling upon the very fabric of the dark abyss, the substance that existed long before the creation of the universe itself. The strain was painful, agonizingly so, but Naruto could feel a slowly growing connection between himself and another, distant soul.

However, it was a race against time, since the more he tapped into the surrounding void, the faster his physical form was being consumed by darkness, like a drowning man that was reaching for his last hope of salvation.

It constantly kept sapping away his strength, but he was far too gone to stop now, it was everything or nothing in one go.

With a loud roar, he abandoned his slowly collapsing physical form and flew straight towards the source of his connection, leaving the last remnants of his past behind him, heading towards a new future.

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Unlike what he expected, his deed did not go entirely unnoticed. A mortal dared to escape death, misusing the cycle of rebirth in ways only two had ever done before. The fact that he escaped from a place where even the deities did not dare to set foot only made matters worse.

It was unexpected, yet it also symbolize the beginning of something new, as all fresh discoveries do.

For now however, those capable of knowing such a truth, as few of them as there were, would merely observe, but sooner or later there were going to be entities that would have an interest in him, for good, evil, or merely for the kick of it, depending on their nature.

But for the moment, the young blonde was safe, his journey nearly completed for the moment.

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It was close, he could feel it. There! His destination was in front of him, as clear as it could be. At last, he could once again be alive, feeling all those things that everyone else took for granted.

Traveling among the countless stars, he could feel that something was trying to hinder his progress, attacking his spiritual form with the same decay that his original body was doomed to suffer, but fortunately the fox kept most of the pressure off him.

He had nothing left; the colors were draining from his spiritual eyes. With the last vestige of their combined power, the blonde and his tenant reached forward, merging their very existence with the incarnation that brought them there.

Surprisingly, his efforts were met without any resistance at all, the process quickly assimilating the two of them with their new form, adjusting the body accordingly in terms of physical appearance.

For a moment, all was silent. And then, Uzumaki Naruto opened his eyes, once more as a member of the living.

"…."

He was alive again, every breath of fresh air he took was a blessing and a gift in itself, but he did not know whether he should cry or laugh, for they did obtain a rebirth of sorts, yet his new body was that of an infant, one that was only a few years old.

And yet, he felt strangely comfortable with it, almost as if it was meant to be, a part of him that only now he was beginning to discover. Perhaps he died in a sense, only to get born again like this, the difference being his memories from his previous life.

Nevertheless, he was back and this time, he would ensure that his tale was not even close to its ending.

Death could not hold him; his loss did not discourage him. He would go on, in memory of all those that vanished when he did not.

He was Naruto…..and he was just getting started.

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**And that is the end of it. Now, as you probably understand by this point, the main point will be Naruto going throughout multiple incarnations/adopted forms in different worlds while being aware of it (since it is a result of his actions after all), whether it will be as a hero, villain or just someone else entirely, along with all the consequences his actions might bring.**

**Although those incarnations might be in the form of a protagonist of a series, it will not always be the case, mostly to keep things from becoming too boring in the long run. Plus not all incarnations will go down so easily, so there might be even more problems for our protagonist in the future.**

**The original version of the challenge lies with Sage of Fanfiction (and at a certain point, the series will head in that direction), so look there if you wish to see where this originated from, otherwise, if you have questions, feel free to ask. **

**If someone wants to know what was the first source of inspiration, watch ´The One´ movie. While not the greatest of movies by any means, it might help in understanding some elements behind this story and the challenge itself.**

**As farewell for now, let me give you a hint of the first world that will be included in this. It has martial arts, fox spirits, a corrupted empire and one crazy inventor as well. On a side note, it will be a separate story, so all updates will go there not here.**

**That is all for the moment, see you (hopefully) at the first chapter, until then have fun in whatever you do and don´t forget to review… Milennial out.**


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